[Vision2020] Confusing One's Identity

[Sunil Ramalingam]

Of course Jesus is against Obamacare.

He's totally in support of single payer.

Sunil

Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 17:39:16 -0700
From: art.deco.studios at gmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Confusing One's Identity

The following is a comment appearing on Douglas Wilson's web blot in response to Wilson's contention that Jesus is against Obamacare:



"I think it is good for you to try and make arguments like you do in the 
preceding paragraphs. You should try to apply Scriptural principles to 
the various aspects of public policy.

But I would be willing to hazard that you don't stand by your arguments 
too firmly. You think they are good and sound, but you also can step 
back from them, and recognize that you may have made a mistake, that I 
may be able to come in and debate your points with you, and that I (or 
another) may actually win that debate with you.

Though you ground your understanding of policy in Scripture, as you 
ought, you recognize that your view is only your view, and so would, I 
hope, hesitate to pronounce all that in the name of Jesus. Your opinions
 are grounded in what Jesus says, but they are still your opinions, not 
the ones of Scripture.

And so, for instance, I think you would be reticent to tell someone that
 disagrees with you that Jesus tells them they are wrong. Are they not 
allowed to also read and attempt to interpret Scriptures, and to come to
 different conclusions than you?

This is seen most clearly in one of your paragraphs, the one that begins
 "Lastly, I believe as a sociopolitical outlook..." Everything you say 
in that paragraph may be true. But you disagree with Christian 
luminaries throughout history, including Protestants like Calvin, 
Luther, and Hooker. I believe, given that disagreement, you would be 
reticent to pronounce your interpretation as if it is in fact the interpretation.

This is all very closely tied together with the Reformation. At Worms, 
the Catholics told Luther that he must agree with their authority--with 
their interpretation of Scripture. He replied, rightly, that He was 
captive to the Word of God, and not their private interpretations of 
that Word. But when we pronounce our interpretations as if they have the
 force of Jesus, we make the same error Luther's adversaries made. Our 
conscience is bound by the Word, not by your, or Pr. Wilson's, or the 
Pope's interpretation of the Word of God.

We see a similar phenomena regarding Luther's response to 
transsubstantiation. He thought that Aquinas made a minor error, and 
definitely not a Church dividing error. However, when the Catholics 
insisted that it was in fact a Church dividing error, and that Luther 
was required to agree with it--that is, when they said "Jesus 
says transsubstantiation is true"--it thereby became a Church dividing 
error that must be resisted.

But the same thing holds when we say "Jesus says Obamacare is wrong." 
That Obamacare is wrong is a theologumena a Christian is free to hold. 
But it is not a theologumena a Christian may pronounce with the voice of
 Jesus. Jesus did not say it was, Doug Wilson did. Doug Wilson is right 
to try to apply the Scriptures (though I may freely dissent), but wrong 
to do so as if He were Jesus."

Does not the writer understand that as far as Wilson is concerned he is the only true voice of Jesus, ever?  Not only that, but at times Wilson writes and speaks as if he were an incarnation of Jesus or God (they are the same for Wilson).  Example:  A few years ago Wilson claimed that criticizing him was an insult to God and the same as criticizing God itself.


It's too bad that Idaho citizens, especially those like Wilson, have such poor access to mental health care.

w.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com






=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet,
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
               http://www.fsr.net
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
======================================================= 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120808/e934f5da/attachment.html>